RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 3, No. 120, Part I, 21 June 1999

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RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 3, No. 120, Part I, 21 June 1999
A daily report of developments in Eastern and
Southeastern Europe, Russia, the Caucasus and Central
Asia prepared by the staff of Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty.
This is Part I, a compilation of news concerning Russia,
Transcaucasia and Central Asia. Part II covers Central,
Eastern, and Southeastern Europe and is distributed
simultaneously as a second document. Back issues of
RFE/RL NewsLine and the OMRI Daily Digest are online at
RFE/RL's Web site: http://www.rferl.org/newsline
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Headlines, Part I
* SERGEEV, COHEN REACH AGREEMENT ON KFOR
* YELTSIN READY TO DISCUSS ABM AND START III
* KAZAKHSTAN SIGNS PIPELINE AGREEMENT
END NOTE: VIENNA CONFERENCE FOCUSES ON NUCLEAR SAFETY IN
EASTERN BLOC
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RUSSIA
SERGEEV, COHEN REACH AGREEMENT ON KFOR... Russian Defense
Minister Igor Sergeev and his U.S. counterpart William Cohen
reached an agreement in Helsinki on 18 June on Russia's role
within the Kosova peacekeeping force (KFOR). The agreement
provides for a unified KFOR command, but gives the Russian
government "full political and military control" over its
KFOR contingent. There will be a Russian military
representative at NATO headquarters in Brussels and a Russian
liaison officer at NATO's southern European headquarters in
Naples to deal with KFOR questions. The Russian contingent
will consist of 3,600 troops. Out of these, 750 will be based
at the Prishtina airfield. The remaining 2,850 troops will be
deployed in the U.S., German, and French sectors. The overall
KFOR commander has full authority to order NATO forces to
execute missions refused by Russian commanders. All KFOR
troops will have access to the Prishtina airfield. Russia and
NATO will create a joint system for air space control. FS
...WHICH NATO, RUSSIAN PARLIAMENT HAVE YET TO ENDORSE. A NATO
spokesman in Brussels told RFE/RL on 21 June that NATO has
yet to approve the agreement, but added that approval is
"just a formality." Elsewhere, Interfax quoted an unnamed
senior military official in Moscow as saying on 20 June that
Russia will not send more troops to Kosova before the
Federation Council endorses the agreement at its next
scheduled meeting on 30 June. The official added, however,
that the agreement offers Russia a "solid and equal
participation" in KFOR. President Boris Yeltsin said on
arrival in Cologne for the G-8 summit meeting that he is
"satisfied" with the terms of the agreement. FS
YELTSIN READY TO DISCUSS ABM AND START III. Yeltsin agreed
during talks with U.S. President Bill Clinton in Cologne on
20 June to consider possible changes in the Anti-Ballistic
Missile (ABM) treaty, opening the way for the U.S. to install
a sophisticated missile-defense system. Clinton, in exchange,
agreed to resume negotiations on the START III agreement
reducing long-range nuclear arms. The meeting marks a thaw in
Russian-U.S. relations after the end of the Kosova crisis.
Clinton told Reuters that "the summit gave us a chance to
work on what we have in common." The U.S. administration
needs changes in the ABM treaty after legislation adopted by
the Congress in March commits Washington to put in place a
defensive shield against limited missile attacks. The 1972
ABM treaty limits the type of systems Russia and the U.S. can
deploy to intercept incoming missiles. FS
DUMA READY TO VOTE ON START II. State Duma speaker Gennadii
Seleznev told Interfax on 21 June that the parliament will
vote on the 1993 START II agreement upon returning in
September from its summer recess. The U.S. has previously
insisted that Russia ratify the agreement before resuming
negotiations on START III, Reuters reported. It added that
START II is designed to bring warheads down to a maximum of
3,500 on each side, while START III could reduce that number
to 2,000. The U.S. Senate ratified START II in 1996, but the
Russian Duma removed the vote from its agenda in April 1999
after NATO began its air campaign against Yugoslavia. FS
G-8 CALLS FOR RESCHEDULING NOT FORGIVING SOVIET-ERA DEBT...
Russia's largest international creditor, Germany, ruled out
forgiving Russia's Soviet-era debt on 20 June. German
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said that "we want to negotiate
seriously on this issue in the Paris Club and also
bilaterally, but we simply can't write it off. That would be
more than Germany could bear." On the same day, Russian
Foreign Minister Ivanov said that the U.S. was in favor of a
partial write-off of these debts. However, U.S. National
Security Advisor Sandy Berger told reporters that President
Clinton indicated only that he would raise the issue of debt
forgiveness, "but he was doubtful whether this was possible,"
according to Reuters. In its final communique, G-8 members
called on the Paris Club to "act expeditiously to negotiate a
debt rescheduling agreement" once an IMF agreement is "in
place." JAC
...AS LONDON CLUB DEFAULT DEADLINE STILL LOOMS. Earlier, "The
Moscow Times" reported that the latest grace period for
Russia to repay some of its overdue debt to the London Club
would expire on 16 June, but two days later, it cited bankers
who said that the real deadline is 23 June (see "RFE/RL
Newsline," 17 June 1999). Meanwhile, Finance Minister Mikhail
Kasyanov said that he is optimistic that the London Club will
not declare Russia in default on the 23rd, according to
Bloomberg. Kasyanov also said that he expects to reach an
agreement with the Paris Club by August or September on
restructuring Soviet-era debt payments due this year and
next. JAC
GORE-STEPASHIN COMMISSION TO "REVIVE." In their meeting on 20
June, President Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin
agreed to "revive" the Gore-Stepashin Commission, ITAR-TASS
reported. Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin will meet with U.S.
Vice President Al Gore during a visit to Washington on 6-8
August, according to Interfax. A series of key meetings of
the Gore-Primakov Commission in Washington were abruptly
canceled when then-Prime Minister Yevgenii Primakov turned
his plane around upon hearing news of NATO air strikes on
Yugoslavia. According to ITAR-TASS, Yeltsin handed Clinton
declassified documents recently unearthed from government
archives concerning the assassination of President John
Kennedy. JAC
IMF PACKAGE ON HOLD FOR THE SUMMER... Prime Minister
Stepashin reacted calmly on 18 June to the State Duma's
rejection of a bill imposing a new tax on gasoline stations
(see "RFE/RL Newsline," 17 June 1999), saying the failed vote
was "neither a setback nor a tragedy. The package will be
passed." Before the vote, Stepashin had threatened to call a
vote of confidence in his government if the Duma didn't pass
the key piece of legislation, which was prepared to satisfy
agreements with the IMF. Duma chairman Seleznev said the same
day that it was unlikely that deputies would be able to
approve the legislative package before they adjourns for the
summer. However, on 21 June, Seleznev said that he hopes the
main bills will be discussed by the end of the week. The
Economics Ministry said that a delayed disbursement of IMF
monies would alter its forecasts for economic growth and
inflation. If the money is delayed then GDP will not grow
more than 1 percent in 2000 and inflation may reach 45-50
percent. JAC
...AS TWO BILLS ARE CHARACTERIZED AS NON-STARTERS. In an
interview with "Parlamentskaya gazeta" on 19 June, Yabloko
faction deputy chairman Sergei Ivanenko claimed that the IMF
is worried about five laws in the legislative package.
According to Ivanenko, fund officials believe these laws
should be passed by the legislature rather than imposed by
presidential decree--a measure that some sources have
suggested the government may be forced to resort to (see
"RFE/RL Newsline," 18 June 1999). One of these laws, the bill
imposing a new tax on gasoline stations, was already
rejected, and the government will not even try to submit a
second one increasing the excise tax on vodka, according to
Ivanenko. Ivanenko asserted that if the tax on vodka is too
high, it becomes cheaper to engage in illegal production and
smuggling. "Regarding the rest of the laws, they may be
adopted since they are in essence right," he concluded. JAC
NEW EXPORT DUTY DRIES UP EXPORTS OF PALLADIUM. Norilsk
Nickel, the world's largest producer of palladium, stopped
exporting the metal in mid-April because of the imposition of
a 5 percent export duty, Interfax reported. According to the
company's deputy general-director, Yurii Kotlyar, the company
shipped a "significant" amount of the metal in the week
between when the duty was announced and when it was actually
imposed. The Russian government on 21 April approved the
introduction of a 5 percent export duty on some kinds of
ferrous metals and aluminum for a six-month period (see
"RFE/RL Newsline," 22 April 1999). At the time, Russian metal
producers claimed that the new duty could prove fatal to
their industry, given that global metal prices are already
declining and approaching the cost of their production in
Russia. JAC
COSSACKS WARN THEY WILL TAKE OVER LAW ENFORCEMENT IN
STAVROPOL. The Council of Cossack Atamans in Stavropol issued
an appeal on 18 June to President Yeltsin and Prime Minister
Stepashin asking them to take urgent measures to ensure law
and order in the area bordering Chechnya, ITAR-TASS reported.
The Cossacks said that the killing of four policemen on 16
June "has undermined faith in the federal authorities'
ability to protect the peaceful citizens in the areas
adjacent to Chechnya." At a funeral for the policemen on 20
June, local Cossacks declared that unless federal authorities
provide effective guarantees of the Stavropol population's
safety, then "the Cossacks will themselves assume the
responsibility for the fate of their loved ones" (see "RFE/RL
Russian Federation Report," 17 March and 4 April 1999). JAC
MALEVICH PAINTING RETURNED. The New York Museum of Modern Art
(MOMA) returned a painting by Kazimir Malevich, "Suprematist
Composition," to his heirs after years of legal negotiations,
"Segodnya" reported on 19 June. In addition, the museum
provided an undisclosed amount of money as compensation for
five other paintings and several drawings in its collection.
The paintings were discovered in Germany in 1935 by a MOMA
official who managed to smuggle them out of the country. Last
month, Inkombank, which had an extensive collection of avant
garde paintings, including Malevich's "Black Square," turned
its collection over to the Ministry of Culture in exchange
for a reduction in its debts to the state. Malevich painted
different versions of the "Black Square" and while one of
them is at Moscow's Tretyakov Gallery, the work belonging to
Inkombank is said to have been hung on Malevich's grave
during the painter's funeral in 1935, "The Moscow Times"
reported on 27 May. JAC
AYATSKOV PROPOSES ALTERNATIVE TO CIS. During talks in Tbilisi
on 17 June with Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze,
Saratov Governor Dmitrii Ayatskov proposed creating a
confederation of former Soviet republics, "Segodnya" reported
the following day. Ayatskov said such a body would contribute
to economic integration and to strengthening the security of
member states. In an interview with "Komsomolskaya pravda" on
15 June, Ayatskov had argued that the CIS has outlived its
usefulness. In Bishkek, the Kyrgyz presidential
administration announced on 18 June that Turkey, Ukraine, and
Georgia may join the Central Asian Union as associate
members, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported. LF
TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA
ARMENIAN PREMIER SUBMITS PROGRAM TO PARLIAMENT. Vazgen
Sargsian outlined his cabinet's program to the new Armenian
parliament on 18 June, Reuters and RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau
reported. Sargsian pledged to continue with liberal reforms
while seeking to minimize the economic hardships that they
have caused to much of the population. He warned that the
government will crack down on corruption and tighten its
supervision of investment policy, and might take unspecified
"unpopular measures" to counter tax evasion. Sargsian also
vowed that Armenia will continue to work closely with
international financial organizations. Parliament deputies
declined to challenge the program, effectively giving it the
green light. On 19 June, Minister for State Revenues Smbat
Ayvazian told journalists that current 1999 budget
projections, especially as regards revenues, are
"unrealistic" and spending cuts may be necessary. LF
ARMENIA DENIES NEW CLASHES NEAR KARABAKH. A Yerevan-based
spokesman for the unrecognized Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh
told Reuters on 19 June that Azerbaijani claims that Karabakh
Armenian forces had opened fire on Azerbaijani positions on
the previous evening with automatic weapons and rocket-
propelled grenades were untrue. Also on 19 June, Armenian
Foreign Ministry spokesman Ara Papyan proposed that OSCE
monitors should be deployed permanently along the "Line of
Contact" east of the disputed enclave, Interfax reported.
Karabakh officials told RFE/RL's Stepanakert correspondent
that the OSCE will conduct an inspection of the Mardakert
sector of the line this week. Papyan also said that Armenia
opposes NATO involvement in the Karabakh peace process.
Azerbaijan's Defense Minister Safar Abiev had advocated such
involvement last week (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 18 June 1999).
LF
RUSSIAN JETS VIOLATE GEORGIAN AIR SPACE. The Georgian Foreign
Ministry will officially protest the unsanctioned overflight
of Georgian air space on 18 June by four Russian military
jets, Deputy Defense Minister Grigol Katamadze told
journalists in Tbilisi the following day. The aircraft were
en route from a Russian base in Rostov to Armenia. Katamadze
also denied rumors that the Georgian air force, which
currently has at its disposal 10 military aircraft and four
helicopters, is to be liquidated. Interfax on 19 June quoted
Rezo Adamia, chairman of the parliamentary committee on
defense and security, as stating that the U.S. has allocated
$18 million towards the cost of building radar and other
navigation facilities that will form the nucleus of Georgia's
air defense system. LF
GEORGIANS STAGE NEW PICKET OF INGURI BRIDGE. Some 100
Georgians having been blocking motor traffic across the
Inguri bridge linking Abkhazia with the rest of Georgia since
18 June, Caucasus Press reported. The protesters are
demanding the release of four Georgian residents of
Abkhazia's southernmost Gali raion arrested in May 1998 by
the Abkhaz authorities on suspicion of maintaining contact
with Georgian guerrilla organizations operating in Gali. LF
KAZAKHSTAN SIGNS PIPELINE AGREEMENT. The government of
Kazakhstan signed a memorandum of intent on 18 June with
British Gas, Italy's Agip, Texaco, and Russia's Lukoil on
construction of a 460 kilometer, $440 million pipeline from
the Karachaganak field to Atyrau. The pipeline will be
connected in 2001 to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium from
Tengiz to Novorossiisk, and will enable Kazakhstan to export
up to 12 million tons of oil and gas condensate per year.
Also on 18 June, the president of Kazakhoil State Company,
Nurlan Qapparov, told journalists that media reports that
Moscow intended to renege on an agreement signed in late 1998
by Kazakh Premier Nurlan Balghymbaev and then Russian Prime
Minister Yevgenii Primakov allowing Kazakhstan to export 9
million tons of crude in 1999 via the existing Atyrau-Samara
pipeline are incorrect, RFE/RL's Astana bureau reported. LF
FOUR MORE TAJIK OPPOSITION REPRESENTATIVES APPOINTED TO
GOVERNMENT POSTS... Following the agreement reached on 17
June between Tajik President Imomali Rakhmonov and United
Tajik Opposition leader Said Abdullo Nuri on renewed
cooperation, the next day Rakhmonov named four opposition
candidates to government posts: Mirzokhudja Nizomov as
Customs Committee chairman, Khakim Kalandarov as deputy
chairman of the Border Guards Committee, Khabib Sanginov as
first deputy interior minister, and Khakhnazar Goibnazarov as
deputy minister for social protection. A decision is to be
reached by 25 June on the UTO's demand that its commander,
Mirzo Zioyev, be appointed defense minister. The UTO is also
to compile a list of 14 cities and towns in which its
nominees will be appointed to head local government bodies,
according to Interfax. Arriving in Dushanbe on 18 June, OSCE
representative Wilhelm Hoeynck stressed the need for
Tajikistan "to conduct the upcoming presidential and
parliamentary elections in compliance with world standards,"
ITAR-TASS reported. LF
...AS TRIAL OPENS OF INSURGENCY PARTICIPANTS. The trial has
begun of 20 people accused of participating in the November
1998 uprising in Khujand, north of Dushanbe, led by rebel
colonel Mahmud Khudoiberdiev, Russian agencies reported on 18
June. An additional 80 people are also awaiting trial in
connection with their alleged role in the mutiny, in which
200 people died (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 5 and 9 November
1998). LF
CHILDREN DETAINED FOR DISTRIBUTING ISLAMIC LITERATURE IN
UZBEKISTAN. Police in Tashkent detained 25 boys aged from 9-
12 for allegedly spreading leaflets propagating
fundamentalist Islam and calling for the overthrow of
President Islam Karimov, AP and Interfax reported on 18 June.
LF
UZBEK, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTERS MEET. Abdulaziz Komilov met
in Moscow on 19 June with his Russian counterpart Igor Ivanov
to discuss bilateral relations and the situation in Kosova
and Afghanistan, Russian agencies reported. Komilov later
told journalists that Ivanov expressed support for the Uzbek
initiative to convene an international conference on
Afghanistan to which the six countries bordering on
Afghanistan and representatives of both the Taliban and the
Northern Alliance would be invited (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 2
and 4 June 1999). LF
END NOTE
VIENNA CONFERENCE FOCUSES ON NUCLEAR SAFETY IN EASTERN BLOC
By Anthony Wesolowsky
In 1986, the world was taught a chilling lesson about
the shortcomings of Soviet-designed nuclear reactors when
Unit 4 at Ukraine's Chornobyl power station exploded and
spewed radiation across a wide swath of Europe.
The accident prompted fears that the 67 Soviet-designed
reactors in operation throughout Central and Eastern Europe
and the Soviet Union itself were fundamentally flawed and
needed to be repaired, if not shut down altogether.
Prompted by the Chornobyl disaster, the G-7 group of
major industrialized nations in 1992 recommended that the 25
most dangerous Soviet-designed reactors in operation--
particularly two older reactor types known as the RBMK and
the VVER-230--should not operate any longer than absolutely
necessary. The seven Western nations also urged safety
upgrades at safer Soviet-designed power stations.
Eight years later, however, not one of the suspect
Soviet-designed nuclear power stations has been closed. Even
an agreement between the G-7 and Kyiv to close the remaining
functioning reactors at Chornobyl by next year faces an
uncertain future.
Lars Larsson is the director of the EBRD's Nuclear
Safety Department. He told our correspondent in Vienna that
the world community's first mistake was underestimating how
long economic and energy-sector reform would take in the
former communist states:
"One of the most important things also [was] the
economic development of these countries has been much, much
slower than originally anticipated. And with the slowdown of
economic development there also goes, unfortunately, the
slowdown of nuclear safety. They all go along. For instance,
if you have economic problems, and it is not possible to pay
salaries to the operators, of course this is a safety
concern."
Luke Lederman is a nuclear safety official with the
International Atomic Energy Agency. He told RFE/RL that many
of the most-pressing improvements have finally been carried
out at most of the region's plants.
Lederman and other Western officials stress that some of
the biggest changes have come in the so-called "safety
culture" at nuclear power plants. In other words, Lederman
says operators at nuclear power stations in Eastern and
Central Europe and in the former Soviet Union are doing a
better, safer, and more careful job.
Lederman said nuclear regulatory agencies have also been
given more power and autonomy, making their job of monitoring
nuclear safety much more effective. The EBRD's Larsson
singled out Armenia as having made some of the greatest
strides in the past four years toward improving its nuclear
regulatory regime. Armenia's two Soviet-designed VVER-230
reactors at Medzamor were shut down in 1989 after a
devastating earthquake prompted fears of a nuclear disaster
because of their proximity to a fault line.
In November 1995, Yerevan restarted Unit 2 at the
Medzamor plant. Vartan Nersesyan of Armenia's Nuclear
Regulatory Authority told RFE/RL that safety upgrades have
been made at the plant to protect it against seismic
activity. But he said the country has no current plans to
restart Unit 1.
"The situation was analyzed, the system was re-
evaluated, and improvements were made accordingly."
Like Armenia, Bulgaria is equipped with the
controversial VVER-230 Soviet-designed reactor. There are
four of them at the country's Kozloduy nuclear power plant,
along with two of the more advanced Soviet-designed VVER-
1000's.
Unlike the VVER-1000, the VVER-230 reactor does not have
an adequate containment unit. In the event of a nuclear
disaster, radiation could leak into the atmosphere. Recently,
the EU renewed its pleas for Bulgaria to shut down Kozloduy,
considered one of the riskiest nuclear power plants in
Eastern Europe.
But Grigory Kastchiev of the Bulgarian Nuclear
Regulatory Agency told our correspondent that there have been
more than 1,000 recent safety upgrades at Kozloduy's four
VVER-230 reactors at a cost of $100 million. He said the
country is planning another $150 million worth of upgrades.
He said Sofia has no plans to shut any of the reactors down
soon.
"The strategy plan of the Bulgarian State Electric
Company is to operate Units 1 and 2 at least until 2005, and
Units 3 and 4 until at least 2012. This is really a necessity
from the [standpoint of the] energy situation in Bulgaria and
the stability of the country."
Bulgarian officials also say the western-based
Westinghouse company has won a $200 million contract to
upgrade the two VVER-1000 reactors at Kozloduy.
Westinghouse secured similar contracts in 1995 to
modernize the two uncompleted nuclear reactors at the
controversial Temelin nuclear power station in the Czech
Republic.
Officials from the Czech state electricity utility, CEZ,
told the Vienna conference that Temelin--which is already
facing cost overruns and delays--will incorporate state-of-
the-art safety measures. Czech nuclear regulators also
announced safety improvements at the country's only working
nuclear power station at Dukovany.
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